1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: an organic polymer including a hydrolyzable group or a hydroxyl group bound to a silicon atom, and including a silicon group which can be crosslinked by forming a siloxane bond (hereinafter, may be also referred to as “reactive silicon group”); a method for production of the same; and a curable composition containing the same.
2. Related Art
Organic polymers including at least one reactive silicon group in the molecule have been known to be characterized by availability of rubbery cured products by crosslinking via formation of a siloxane bond, which is accompanied by a hydrolysis reaction or the like of the reactive silicon group due to the moisture and the like even at room temperatures.
Among these organic polymers having a reactive silicon group, organic polymers having a main chain skeleton made of polyoxyalkylene based polymers and polyisobutylene based polymers have been already produced industrially and used broadly in applications such as sealants, adhesives, and paints (see, for example, JP-A-52-73998, and JP-A-63-6041). When the organic polymers having a reactive silicon group are used as curable compositions such as sealants, adhesives, paints and the like, a variety of characteristics such as curability and adhesiveness, mechanical characteristics, and the like are required.
The curable composition including the organic polymer having a reactive silicon group is hardened using a curing catalyst such as an organic tin compound which is commonly typified by dibutyltin bis(acetylacetonato) and which has a carbon-tin bond. In use, when curing within a short period of time is required, generally employed method includes increasing the amount of the curing catalyst, and the like. However, in recent years, toxicity of the organic tin compounds has been indicated, and thus these compounds must be carefully used in light of environmental security.
As the curing catalyst other than the organic tin compounds, inorganic tin carboxylates and other metal carboxylates, and catalyst systems in which carboxylic acid and an amine based compound are used in combination are disclosed (see, for example, JP-A-55-9669, JP-A-2003-206410, and JP-A-5-117519). However, it is possible that these catalysts are inferior in curability as compared with organic tin catalysts.
Meanwhile, it is disclosed that a curable composition which exhibits a high curing speed is obtained by using a polymer having a specified end structure (see, for example, JP-T-2005-501146 (Japanese Translation of PCT Application)).